I soaked the bones in salted ice water over night changing the water 4 times.

I dried the bones and brushed them with extra virgin olive oil, salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Then I popped them into a pre heated oven at 425 degrees. Broiled them for 25 minutes…okaaaaay, more like 30 minutes which was a dad too long but who’s perfect

I sliced and toasted a fresh baguette and man oh man was it gooooood!

Sooooo, I scraped all of the marrow off the bones, chopped the parsley, and added some roasted garlic…put it all in a dish and tossed it in the fridge. I was going to freeze it but the next morning I got up, made some coffee, and spread some of the left over bone marrow, parsley and garlic on a toasted baguette…IT WAS EVEN BETTER! Thank you GOD for letting man discover fire, n beef bone marrow, n garlic n stuff.

Mole de Poblamo de Guajolote

The Turkey has been domesticated in Mexico since pre-Colombian days, and Turkey Guajolote or “Turkey in Sauce”, is a traditional Aztec Indian dish. I wanted to do this dish the old fashioned way…No short cuts, no surrender! That being said, it takes a while.

When I was in Pueblo, Mexico filming a few years ago you could see all of the different fresh Mole pastes being sold at the out door Market in town. There must have been over twenty different kinds! I still regret not buying a few to try out. This is a dish I’ve wanted to try for years. I finally gave it a shot why? Because this year I didn’t have to cook Turkey for Thanksgiving. I put my daughter to bed the night before Thanksgiving and stayed up until 3 AM preparing this.

Ingredients:

½  pd Pasilla Peppers

½  pd Broad Peppers

¼  pd Brown Peppers

4-10 Chillies

1 Tbl spoon Sesame seeds

½ cup Squash seeds

(What are Squash seeds and where do you find them? I have no idea…Short cut number 1, I used Pumpkin seeds instead)

½ cup Pumpkin seeds

½ cup Peanuts

2 Tbl spoons Pine Nuts

3-6 cloves Garlic, minced

½ cup Raisins

1 oz. Chocolate (semi sweet)

3 cups Olive Oil

1 large Turkey, jointed

1 stale piece of tortilla

½ slice of bread

3 Tomatoes, chopped

1 sprig, Majoram

1 sprig, Thyme

1 Bay leaf

2 cloves

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

½ teaspoon Ginger

1 Tbl spoon Aniseed

(Short cut number 2: Couldn’t find any aniseed…So I skipped this ingredient. Oops!)

½ cup Raisins

Salt to taste

I know…That’s a big ass turkey!

Remove seeds and vein peppers. Drop them in hot water to soften and let stand.

Brown Turkey in pepper flavored oil.

Arrange Turkey pieces in earthenware casserole.

Cover with salted boiling water and cook gently until tender.

Toast Sesame seeds over medium heat in a dry pan.

Toast Squash and Pumpkin seeds over medium heat, but do not brown.

Fry Tortilla, and bread slice until crisp, then crumble.

Finely grind Sesame, Pumpkin, Squash, Bread, Tortilla, and Pine nuts.

Grind Peppers and chilies together.

Saute Garlic without browning.

Add Tomatoes and sauté until it thickens.

Combine and work mixture until smooth.

Add a bit of the used oil, Majoram, Thyme, Cloves, Ginger, Cinnamon, Aniseed, Raisins, and Bay leaf to the mixture and finally salt to taste.

Add mixture to the Turkey and its broth.

(I removed the Turkey pieces and reduced the broth by about a third to richen it. I also removed the fat)

*The Mole should not be too thick, more like a very rich soup, or stew.

Finish cooking, and add the grated Chocolate at the last minute.

Serve when the Chocolate has melted and blended.

This dish was Mmmm, Mmmm, good! I boned and chilled the mole and had some the next day, even better. It was worth all of the work. HAPPY TURKEY DAAAAAAY !!!

I left the feet on and cut it in half. I then cooked it in a rich home made chicken stock I had on hand. After about an hour and a half I lifted the chicken out of the broth. I strained and skimmed the broth and set it aside. I removed the feet and partially boned the chicken halves, shredded the breast meat and left the leg and thighs in tact. I then assembled the soup.

I used Shitake mushrooms, russet potatoes, garlic, fresh ginger and a couple of citrus leaves, and simmered them in the broth until tender. I then added the vegetables to the chicken in the bowl. I finally topped it off with fresh Cilantro leaves. Salt and white pepper to taste. I didn’t want to clutter the soup with too many ingredients.

I believe it is always better to prepare chicken soup when you are just coming down with a cold. That way, you cook with a mission: That being to heal yourself. Although, I didn’t notice any significant, or additional healing powers, the soup it was delicate, and delicious in flavor.

*Coming soon: I’m going to cure my first harvest of olives from my hillside orchard, and I’m preparing a traditional Mexican Turkey in mole sauce for Thanksgiving*

(Mexican pork, chicken and hominy stew)

I had pozole for the first time at Richard Thomas’s house in New York about a year and a half ago n DAMN, was it goooood! His wife made a kick ass green pozole and shut it down! I made this for the first time last week during the storm here in LA. The definition of pozole is “foam,” because the Aztecs believed hominy resembled a foamy froth. Pozole is a dish for special occasions in Mexico. Occasions like breakfast, lunch and or dinner…Please excuse my very ghetto measurements on this recipe, as I went commando!

Ingredients

Soup

Smoked Pork neck bone : 1 1/2 to 2 pounds

(Except no substitutes! The depth of flavor you get from the neck bones is ridiculous! I usually keep some frozen neck bone meat on hand to toss into soups and stews when I cook. This is double, top secret chef knowledge!)

Chicken thighs: 1 1/2 to 2 pounds

10 dried ancho, or guajillo chilies

Fresh hominy, rinsed — 2 to 3 cups

Garlic

Celery

Carrots

Ground cumin: 2 teaspoons

Salt: 2 teaspoons

Water: 12 cups

Garnishes

Lettuce, shredded

Onion, finely diced

Radishes, thinly sliced

Limes, cut into wedges

Avocado, diced

Mint, chopped

Cilantro, chopped

Oregano, dried

Chile piquín, ground

Method

Cook the chicken thighs with chopped carrots, celery, bay leaf,

and onions and garlic in water until tender about an hour and a half

or two hours. Remove thighs and cool. Remove the meat from the

bones and shred the meat. Strain stock and reserve in

the fridge. After the stock has congealed I removed the fat at the top.

This is liquid GOLD!

Do the same with the neck bones.

I used dried hominy for the first time. Soaked it over night and

cooked it in salted water for about an hour and a half. I did all of

this the day before.

Meanwhile remove the stems and seeds from the chilies. Roast them

for a couple of minutes in an iron skillet. This gives it an even smokier flavor!

Add some of the reserved

stock and soak the chilies for 20 to 30 minutes until soft.

Puree in a blender with a chopped onion and two garlic heads.

Add the pork, chicken, hominy, garlic, ground cumin, salt and the reserved stock

to a large pot. I used mostly the pork stock, as it was richer and mixed it with a little of the chicken stock. Add the dried chile sauce to the stew and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes.

 Adjust seasoning and serve in big bowls with garnish.

*******

Variations

Pozole varies according to the region, The most basic is known

as pozole blanco, or white pozole and is very popular in

Guadalajara. It is the same as the above recipe but without the dried

chilies.

Pozole Verde (Green pozole):

Popular in the state of Guerrero. It’s the same as the recipe above

with the following variations. Toast 1 cup of shelled pumpkin seeds

(pepitas), and puree them in a blender with 1 to 2 cups of

of fresh cooked tomatillos, a chopped jalapeño, a couple of

leaves of lettuce, a few sprigs of chopped cilantro and a little liquid

from the stewpot. Strain through a sieve into a hot skillet and boil

for 5 minutes. Stir into the stew for the last 20 to 30

minutes of simmering.

*Sometimes a raw egg is stirred into the stew just before serving.

What would I do differently? Use more hominy! I didn’t make enough of it. So, here’s my secret weapon. I make the Pozole ahead of time. Freeze it…so, when friends drop by, I warm it up n throw this on’m in like 10 minutes! Killin’m soflty with my grub, killin’m softly…

Ingredients

1 egg (whipped)

Thinly sliced, peeled russet potatoes 

Thinly sliced leeks (white part only)

Fresh country cream

Fresh nutmeg

Gruyere cheese

Salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg

******

Thinly slice the leeks. (I used a mandolin slicer)

Saute the leeks gently in unsweetened country butter (do not brown them), and set them aside

Peel, and slice the potatoes. Again I used my Mandolin slicer (they should be 1/8 of an inch thick).

Combine the whipped egg, and potatoes. Salt and pepper generously and set aside.

Grate the cheese. Now the cheese is key. I went my fave cheese shop “Artisan Cheese Gallery” in Studio City, Cali. I’m tasting cheeses and then I taste this aged gruyere that is like fifty bucks a pound and DAMN, it’s gooooooooooood! I buy a 1/4 pound.

Take a baking dish and smear it with a stick of butter.

Add a layer of seasoned, sliced potatoes

Add a layer of the leeks

Add a layer of cheese until you get to the top. Sprinkle with extra cheese, and freshly grated nutmeg.

Pour the fresh cream in, but do not top off. Leave about a quarter of an inch room at the top.

Put it in a pre heated oven at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half.

Double Top Secret Cooking Info:

For a perfect crust, you will have to break the crust three times!

Once every 20 minutes or so take a wooden spoon and break the crust, and gently swirl and remoisten the potatoes. This will give you the perfect crust. Also, the key to this dish is the cheese. I’ve made it using normal gruyere cheese and it was good, but with the really good aged gruyere it became amazing!

*I made this dish using fennel instead of leeks and it was amazing!

Afterword: I tried to serve this dish to my 3 1/2 year old daughter. She was not having it! She wanted my Mac n Cheese. I bribed her with a cookie and she took one bite and it was over. She silently ate the whole bowl. I asked her did she like it? And she said “Yeah, could you make this tomorrow daddy? DONE!

Curried goat!  The first thing I did was make the coconut milk from scratch. When I say scratch I mean scratch. I bought a brown coconut from an Asian market (I only bring this up because the coconuts I got from Ralph’s were so old and rotten that they were unusable!)

I drained the juice and cracked and shredded the coconut meat.

I steeped the shredded coconut meat in boiling water. I then put the mixture in a mixer and finally I strained it using a brass coconut strainer I got years ago in a Thai market here in LA. Ta Da…coconut milk

The batch on the left is what happened when I used too much water. The batch on the right came out creamy and perfect!

Next I made a fresh batch of Madras Curry

Madras Curry Ingredients

1 cup ground coriander

1/2 cup ground cumin

1 tablespoon each of:

Ground black pepper

Tumeric

Black mustard seeds

Chili powder, and salt

Vinegar (for mixing)

34 cup olive oil

Combine all of the spices in a bowl.

Heat the oil in a sauce pan and pour in the spice mixture. Turn the heat down low and stir constantly until the spices are cooked. Cool and set aside.

I got my goat meat from Heritage meats online and it was described as farm raised American goat…Whatever that means. I opened the package and it was gamey, very gamey!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 pounds goat meat, cut into small pieces

2 large onions finely chopped

3 tablespoons madras curry paste

1 fresh hot red pepper, chopped

Bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 cup coconut milk

chicken stock

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Juice 1/2 lime

I cut the goat meat into smaller pieces and browned them in heated oil.

I then added the Bay leaf, allspice, coconut milk, and enough stock to cover the meat. I simmered it until the meat was tender…About 2 1/2 hours. Just before serving I added the lime juice and

Damn was it goooooooooood!

* A quick note: I tasted the dish the next day and it was very gamey! But still very goooood!

Finocchiona Salami, Coppa, and the Hot Sopressata

I recently ordered a whole Wagyu Beef tenderloin and standing rib eye roast from Lobel’s online. The purpose was to do a lil ghetto butchering!

First the rib roast.

I originally was going to carve both bone-in rib eye and cowboy steaks but my butcher told me that cowboy steaks were just a fashion cut and that it wastes meat soooooo…I couldn’t do it. Then, I was going to carve a boneless rib eye steak but the steaks taste so much better bone-in and you can always bone the steak after cooking. so I simply broke down the roast into four beautiful bone-in rib eye steaks!

I didn’t have remove any excess fat from the steaks as they came so beautifully carved out of the box! Next came the tenderloin.

I’m going to use some technical butchering terms right now. You see that side hanging part thingy at the top of the tenderloin. I removed that and the tip. I could have trimmed and tied that and made a tenderloin roast out of it but I cut a bunch of meaty tenderloin steaks and bagged and froze them. I love to make a nice simple salad and thin slice a rare tenderloin steak on top. I hardly use any dressing as the juices from the steak flavor the salad greens.

Hardly any left over meat scraps!

*I broke down a tenderloin I ordered from Niman Ranch a few years ago and I had to do a lot more trimming and I even dry aged it for an additional 45 days in my fridge. Man, was that meat stinky tasty!

And finally the best way to cook a steak…

I grill it on both sides until it’s crispy and the meat is sealed,and then I finish it off in a 400 degree oven for around 7 minutes.

A truly great steak! All you need is salt, pepper, and heat!

Yup…That’s rabbit all right! Now, I changed the recipe a bit. First I cut up the rabbit, and browned it in the honey and olive oil.

The original recipe called for boiling the veggies individually in water. I couldn’t bring myself to do this, so I pan Roasted each vegetable until dente. Why?? More, rustic flavor! Also, I added a parsnip cause I had one left over in the kitchen.

I then combined the veggies with the rabbit.

Oven roasted everything until tender (about 50 minutes) and DAMN! that’s a great rustic Italian dish!

Rabbit  W/Honey & Vegetables

Ingredients

6 Tbl spoons olive oil

1 Tbl spoon clear honey

1 Rabbit (cut into pieces)

5 Tbl spoons white vinegar

3 carrots

1 parsnip

4 turnips

½ cup of peas

½ cup string beans

1 fresh sprig of Tarragon

salt, pepper

*******

Pre heat oven 400 degrees

Heat olive oil and honey in casserole

Brown Rabbit and set aside

Add vinegar, deglaze pan

Pan roast vegetables

*Combine Rabbit and veggies and roast in oven for 50 mins*

Pork Pot stickers

Ingredients

For the dumplings:

2/3 pound ground pork

2 green onions, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons mushroom soy sauce

20 to 22 gyoza wrappers or wonton skins

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup chicken stock

For the sauce:

4 tablespoons mushroom soy sauce

3 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

3 drops hot chili oil, or more to taste

1 Thai red chile, thinly sliced, stem removed

1 tablespoon thinly sliced green onions

Directions

In a small mixing bowl I combined the ground pork, green onions, ginger, garlic, cornstarch and soy and mix thoroughly.

Working in batches, I laid the gyoza wrappers on a clean, dry surface and placed about 1 tablespoon in the center of each wrapper. Moisten the edges with water, and brought the edges together at the top so that they met. * So, it took me a bit to get this down…Basically its like licking an envelope and sealing it!

In a large nonstick skillet over low heat, I added the vegetable oil and, when hot, added the dumplings and cooked them until they were golden brown on the bottom, 1 to 2 minutes.

* Are the pot stickers a tad bit crowded in the pan?? YES!!

Then I added the chicken stock, reduced the heat to low, and covered the skillet. I cooked the dumplings until the wrappers were tender and the filling cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. I had to add a bit of additional stock to the liquid as it had evaporated before the dumplings were finished cooking.

And here’s the finished product of my first ever Pork Pot Stickers!

I made the dipping sauce per the recipe and…DAMN were they good! Next, the chicken pot stickers.

Chicken Pot stickers

Ingredients

1 pound ground chicken

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

2 tablespoons shallots, minced

1 cup chunky peanut butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons Thai hot chili paste

2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

30 wonton wrappers

Chili Mint Sauce:

1 small bottle Thai sweet chili sauce

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

1/4 fresh mint leaves, chopped

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Puree ingredients in a food processor for 1 minute. Serve at room temperature.

*******

I chopped some left over chicken breast meat into cubes, and froze it for an hour. I then ran the meat through a meat grinder using a number 2 blade. (I should have used chicken thighs but I was to lazy to go and get them, so there you are!)

Directions

In a hot pan I sautéed the ground chicken, garlic, ginger and shallots together until the chicken was thoroughly cooked. I drained off the excess fat and chilled the chicken meat.

I then mixed the chicken together in a bowl with the peanut butter, brown sugar, chili paste, basil and cilantro.

I took the chilled mixture and wrapped it in the wonton wrappers. I felt the wonton papers I got were too thin. I also put way too much of the chicken mixture into the wrappers…ANYWAAAAAAY.

I sealed and then steamed them in my couscoussier.

I brought  the water to a boil, steamed the pot stickers for about 8 to 10 minutes until the wrappers were translucent…And here they are!

* A quick note. The chicken pot stickers were way too sweet for my taste. I would also use about half the peanut butter in the recipe. Also, I hated the sweet sauce recipe and much preferred a savory spicy sauce similar to the one I made for the pork pot stickers. This was my first attempt, but next time I’m going renagade…Lambs tongue, and Beef cheek pot stickers! That’s how I rollllllllll !!!!